As he neared the end of the process of making prints for an exhibition of his large- and medium-format photography, Geoffrey Roberts was ready to spread the word about the upcoming event. “I was in the darkroom once or twice a week for eight or nine months leading up to the show,” he says, “and to promote it I took pictures in the darkroom and posted them to Flickr, Facebook, Instagram—basically everywhere.”

It’s not your typical image of that place then, which means Mirjam Evers has done her job well. She has images of the colorful chaos of revelers in full regalia, but the challenge is to get something special. “The travel publications I work for ask for something different and unusual,” Evers says. “She was posing, and most of the photographers were shooting from eye level, so I crouched down.”

Boudoir is one of the fastest growing segments of the photography industry, but it’s not exactly a new thing for some pros. “We had been doing boudoir photography for a long time before that term became popular and the photography became a big thing,” Cherie Steinberg says. “We” is Steinberg and Hedley Jones, her husband and partner in CherieFoto and The Boudoir Café. Their main business “a long time before” was weddings, and many of their boudoir shoots featured engagement photographs or were sessions with brides whose weddings they’d photographed.

When the rain stopped, Shawn Clover was on the pedestrian bridge over the street at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, waiting for someone interesting to come by. He ended up photographing 14 interesting people, one frame for each. This is the image he chose to post to Flickr.

Unlike landscape, portrait, wildlife, or even sports photographers, the first shots taken these days by advertising photographers on the job are almost always instantly seen and judged—by the client, the client’s representative, an agency rep, or an art director. Pressure, anyone?

If there’s one thing to be learned from a 27-year career shooting for the New York Daily News, covering everything from breaking news to sports, food to fashion, it’s to keep your eyes open. David Handschuh calls this photo “the ultimate walking around with your eyes open picture.”

Not too long ago we received these notes from photographer Daryl Hawk about his April, 2014, journey across the kingdom of Ladakh:
“Traversed the entire region from the Pakistan border in the west to the Tibetan border in the east…crossed the Khardung pass at 18,380 feet on the highest motorable road in the world…lived with both nomads and residents…explored 25 ancient monasteries and fortresses…tracked snow leopards, discovered petroglyphs and sacred lakes…had a meeting and interview with the King of Ladakh.”

[Column Note: Most people come to professional photography by traveling a familiar route: from an early fascination with cameras, to photo classes and courses, followed by assisting a pro to gain some real-world experience. Then comes striking out on one's own as photographer, which, if all goes well, is followed by the frequent printing of invoices. Others, however, arrive at a pro career sideways—that is, coming at it from another occupation. The stories these "second career" pro photographers tell tend to be quite interesting, even inspirational. And those stories are what this new online column, titled Going Pro, is all about.]

It’s welcome news to any photographer when the look of their images becomes a distinct, signature style. That’s exactly what has happened to Benny Migliorino, whose specialty is environmental and location portraits. “A lot of people say that what I’ve become known for is dramatic lighting,” Migliorino acknowledges, “but I didn’t set out to be known for that—it’s just the way I like to light, and the way I want my photographs to look.”